My Favorite 5 of 2011

Last year on New Year's Eve I posted my top 5 favorite recipes I made in 2010, and I'd like to do the same for 2011. I actually intended to share more recipes this year, and more regularly, so I apologize for the lapses in blog posts here and there. Often I make something new, really like it and want to post the recipe, but then I never quite get around to making the same thing again or don't have time to take all the pictures. Then there are times when I decide to make a recipe specifically for a blog post, and it's disappointing. Sometimes I go ahead and share the recipe anyway, especially if I think I did something wrong or I feel like I'm long overdue for a post. Maybe in 2012 I'll have enough to do a top 10, but this year I'm sticking with just 5.

I would like to point out that the gluten free chocolate chip cookies from Elana Amsterdam's Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook is a recipe I featured this year, and it's without a doubt a favorite and possibly the recipe I make most often, but I've been making it since 2010, so I didn't consider it for the top 5 of this year. Also, I didn't consider any recipes that aren't gluten-free. These are MY favorite recipes, after all; I have to be able to eat them. So, without any more rambling, here's the countdown of my 5 favorite recipes of 2011.

Number 5 is the gluten-free Strawberry Shortcake I made for the Driscoll's Strawberry Shortcake Day promotion. These are definitely best consumed the same day they're baked. They get stale very quickly. I did more than just top them with strawberries, though. I also enjoyed them with lemon curd and raspberries, and they're also pretty dang yummy smeared with Nutella.

5. Strawberry Shortcake

The gluten free Mud Pie was really an experiment, and I was pleased enough with the results to consider it number 4. I know it doesn't look all that appetizing, and I do want to make this recipe again, just to see if I can improve its appearance. The crust is yummy and works with any kind of filling, so it's a great recipe to know.

4. Mud Pie

The Carrot Date Muffins recipe I made in November is my 3rd favorite, only I like the way I made them better than the original recipe. They're delicious naked, but when topped with some cream cheese frosting you'll swear you're eating carrot cake.

3. Carrot Date Muffins

In 2nd place is the Nutty Crust Peach Pie. Here's an example of a recipe that didn't come out very well, due to the burnt crust edges, and me subbing some pecans for almonds didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped. Peaches and pecans go together fine, but this crust got soggy on me, and it that's not been an issue when I use all almonds. Still, it was delicious.

2. Nutty Crust Peach Pie

There's a reason I went ahead and posted that cornbread recipe yesterday, even though I didn't have step-by-step photos, or really any decent pictures of the cornbread muffins. I had to get that recipe up because it's my top number 1 favorite of 2011. Here again, I like the way I made it better, but I'm not all that fond of sweet cornbread, especially when I want to make stuffing with it.

1. Cornbread

I want to know about other great recipes people made this year, gluten-free or not. Do you have a list of favorites? Please comment and let me know.

Happy New Year everybody!

Carrot Date Muffins (gluten free)

Here's yet another recipe I found on my Whole Foods Recipes app, but if you don't have an iPhone, the recipe is also posted on the Whole Foods website. Let me just go ahead and admit that I didn't have any amaranth or millet flour when I decided I had to make these muffins, but I did have exactly 3/4 cup of Pamela's Baking Mix sitting in my pantry just begging to be used, so that's what went into my muffins instead.

For the muffins, you'll need:

2 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
3/4 cup amaranth flour or millet flour (except I used Pamela's Baking Mix)
3/4 cup ground almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

I hadn't beat the eggs or melted the coconut oil when I took a picture of the ingredients, but don't worry, it all got done.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cavity standard muffin tin with paper baking cups. Put the dates and carrots in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the walnuts, and pulse until they're finely chopped.

 

Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl, and then add the coconut oil, lightly beaten eggs, and maple syrup. Stir it all together to combine completely.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. 

The recipe says to then pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients, but I did it the opposite way because my wet ingredients were in a bigger bowl. Stir the mixture until just combined. 

Divide the batter evenly between the lined muffin cavities. I forgot to snap a photo of this step, and I didn't do such a great job of dividing the batter evenly, but they still came out okay.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. After a few minutes, remove them from the pan and let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

These are delicious, and I really want to make them again using amaranth or millet flour like the recipe calls for, just to compare and see what (if any) difference it makes in the taste and texture. They are plenty sweet and don't need any kind of topping, but they also taste a lot like carrot cake, so I think a modest amount of cream cheese icing on the top would be seriously yummy. If you like carrot cake, that is. 

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Summer Fruits

I love the fresh produce this time of year. Last weekend we went blueberry picking, which is one of my favorite summer time activities, and then afterwards we called in at the Farmers Market. In addition to the six pounds of blueberries we picked, we also came home with a CSA box from Delvin Farms and four pounds of peaches.

  

At the moment there's both a baked oatmeal and a blueberry pie in the refrigerator, but I doubt they'll last long. Now I need to figure out something to do with these peaches. I've already made raw peach cobbler once, so I'd like to expand my horizons a bit more. I welcome any suggestions, as long as they're gluten-free or can be easily made without any ingredients containing gluten.

In the CSA box were some jalapeno peppers, which was lucky because I was wanting to try this recipe for Crispy Jalapeno-Lime Chicken. I only had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on hand, so I used those instead of chicken thighs, but it was still yummy. This dish is a bit spicy, but the lime juice does a great job of taking the edge off. I also made soup with all the yellow squash, and we ate the last of the corn for dinner last night. We still have a plenty of tomatoes left, as I'm really the only one in the house who eats them, and there were a lot in there, as well as a few cucumbers, a zucchini, and some bell peppers. I gave away the two cantaloupes because I'm not really a fan of them. I love honeydew and watermelon, but not cantaloupes for some reason.

Unfortunately, I don't have photos of any of this so you'll just have to take my word for it. But I do have some exciting news to share! I hope you haven't forgotten about Gluten Free Week over at The Sugar Turntable, because today my Banana Ganache Tart with Peanut Butter Cookie Crust is featured as a guest post. Even though you may have already seen that recipe, it's still a good excuse to check out what else has already posted this week. I quite like the look of the Coconut Cake with Key Lime Frosting from yesterday. It's already on my "must try" list.

Namaste Foods Gluten Free Bread Mix

Recently I made a loaf of bread using a bag of Namaste Foods Gluten Free Bread Mix. I bought this on sale at some point, and it subsequently sat in the pantry for a while. I'm not sure how long, but there's another 8 months to go until the use-by date, so I'm not worried. I like to have stuff like this on hand because sometimes I get in the mood to eat bread, and that usually means I have to make it myself. This time, I was also in desperate need of clearing out some pantry space, so making this mix was the easy answer.

This is the third loaf of gluten free bread I've made from a mix (Pamela's and Bob's Red Mill were the other ones I tried), and it did fairly well. It rose way more than I thought it would, but it was still heavy and moist the first day, only to very quickly dry out by the third day after baking.

  

The bread mix consists of a flour blend made from brown rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, rice milk powder, evaporated cane juice, millet flour, salt, xanthan gum, and a separate packet of yeast is also included. All you need to add is 1 egg, 3 egg whites, 1/4 cup of oil, and 1 cup of warm water.

 

Add the yeast to the water and give it at least a good 5 minutes to dissolve and proof. I was actually quite worried because after 20 minutes mine still didn't look all that active, but I went a head and used it and the bread rose just fine.

  

Combine the egg, egg whites, and oil. Add the yeast, and then the package of flour blend. Beat for 3 minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed, scraping the bowl down as needed.

   

Spray a bread pan with nonstick cooking spray, and if you're not using your oven to let the dough rise, you can go ahead and let it start preheating to 350 degrees. Pour the bread dough (it's more like quickbread batter) into the pan. Cover loosely and let rise for at least 30 minutes. It doesn't double, but you can see it clearly does rise, just compare the pictures above to those below.

 

By the way, I was too lazy to look for couldn't find my loaf pan, so I used one of these casserole dishes because it was the first baking vessel I could access without potentially disturbing a precariously stacked tower of teetering crockery and bakeware. It worked out great--I used the lid to cover the dish for proofing, and then again during baking so the top wouldn't over brown. Well, at least not much... And here's the finished product. I was very pleased to see that it rose even more during baking.

    

I apologize for not having any pictures of the inside of the loaf. I kept meaning to take some, but I seemed to either not have my camera handy when I was slicing the bread, or my kitchen was way too dark. But the crust is more flaky than crusty, and the inside has a coarse crumb, like most gluten free bread, even though the flour blend was fairly fine.

For me this bread was moist on the day of baking, but soon developed a more cornbread-like texture and quickly dried out. It has a deeper flavor than regular bread, and it goes well equally with sweet or savory toppings. I tried it with cheese and Branston Pickle, lemon curd, and honey. It worked well with all of them.

National Strawberry Shortcake Day

Happy National Strawberry Shortcake Day everybody! Driscoll's is supposed to be announcing the winners to their contests today, and to further commemorate the occasion, they sent out some coupons so I could make the Strawberry Shortcake recipe they emailed me. Except I opted to make a gluten and dairy free version. I adapted this recipe from the one posted on the Without Adornment blog.

 

I had a slight panic when I initially didn't see any Driscoll's strawberries in the produce department of our local grocery store, until I made my way over to the organic section, and there they were. I was actually pleased that the only Driscoll's strawberries there were organic, because strawberries are on the "dirty dozen" list, so it's a good idea to opt for organic whenever possible. Especially when you have a coupon to get them for free!

For the shortcakes:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-5 Tablespoons coconut oil
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons coconut milk (cream removed)
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (which I THOUGHT I had, but I didn't so I subbed regular vinegar)

Important: Refrigerate a can of coconut milk overnight so the cream rises to the top. Scoop off the cream and keep, as it whips up like heavy cream and is a great dairy-free alternative to whipped cream. Also, a few hours before you're ready to whip the coconut cream, chill your mixer bowl and whisk in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Whisk the together the flour, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Mix in the coconut oil until there aren't any big chunks. 

  

Add liquid ingredients, and stir with a fork until dough is mixed and starts to come together. It will be like biscuit dough. Pat or roll out dough to around an inch thick on a well floured surface, and cut using a 3-inch round cutter. I actually don't have a round cutter that size, so I used a tumbler, which was a good half an inch larger in diameter. As a result, I didn't get as many shortcakes from the dough, but they were bigger.

 

Place the shortcakes on a cookie sheet. The recipe didn't say if they should be touching or spread out, but most biscuits bake slightly touching each other, so I tried it both ways. It didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever.

  

Allow the shortcakes to cool completely. While they're doing that, you can make the filling. Wash, hull, and slice the strawberries and set aside.

 

Remember the coconut cream reserved from the can of coconut milk? Well, place it into the chilled mixer bowl and beat until it's the consistency of whipped cream. You can gradually add some powdered sugar, or I used a little of my leftover Xylitol. I also put about a small dollop of maple syrup in there, mostly to see how the coconut cream would whip up with maple syrup added, but also to try and give it a deeper flavor.

  

To assemble the shortcakes, slice them in half horizontally, spread coconut cream on top (I also put some strawberry jam on two of the shortcakes first, just to see how that would taste). Then pile slices strawberries on the top and serve.

  

Since these were bigger than they were supposed to be, we enjoyed them as open-face strawberry shortcakes. If you use a smaller cutter, then you can make them the more traditional way, with the filling sandwiched in between the two slices of shortcake. You could even put more cream and strawberries on the top and layer it like a trifle.

  

Overall, I'm very pleased with how these came out. The shortcake is really best eaten the day it's made, though. I kept mine in the refrigerator, and they seem to get denser and heavier (and hard like a hockey puck) the longer they hang around. As far as texture, it comes close. Taste-wise, they're pretty adequate, but I don't think they taste good enough to eat one their own. Some sort of filling or spread really helps them. I personally liked the strawberry shortcakes I made with a thin layer of strawberry jam better than the ones without. But I have a serious sweet tooth, and really both ways these were yummy.

So, who else is celebrating National Strawberry Shortcake Day? If you have a favorite shortcake recipe, gluten-free or otherwise, please feel free to share!